Just One Thing
"Red Flag" laws were designed to stop EXACTLY what happened in Highland Park, Illinois on July 4th. To be absolutely clear, I'm not saying I believe that Red Flag laws are always or even often effective. Frankly I have no idea if there's good data on that; I suspect there isn't, and also that it varies widely by state.
But Illinois has a Red Flag law...and yet that monster was still able to pass a background check and buy guns.
Why? Some theorize that outside of one particular county where law enforcement reminds citizens of the existence of the law, most residents of that state are unaware that the law exists. We can debate all we want about whether Red Flag laws are constitutional. I think they probably are IF done the right way. But for the moment, given that the law exists, if there is any situation where it should have come into play, it's this one.
Seriously: Parade shooting suspect bought 5 weapons despite threats - ABC News (go.com)
Robert Crimo III, 'Awake the Rapper,' arrested in Highland Park shooting - The Washington Post
Today's Guests
Pat Girondi spent a literal fortune trying to develop a drug to treat a disease called Thalassemia, which his son suffers with. The story of his life, growing up in the very very rough south side Italian neighborhoods of Chicago, committing crimes at a young age, become a trader in Chicago, also becoming a pretty good singer, earning the money that let him try to save his son, and the incredible treachery and fraud which he faced throughout the drug research and development process, make his new book "Flight of the Rondone" one of the most remarkable, entertaining, and intense things I've read in a long time. It is absolutely in my top 10 book suggestions for 2022.
As a guy who knew Pat on the floor, it's almost funny to see his Wikipedia page list him first as a singer and composer: Patrick Girondi - Wikipedia
Please buy and read this book: Flight of the Rondone | Book by Patrick Girondi | Official Publisher Page | Simon & Schuster (simonandschuster.com)
A special note: I do not think Pat will remember me, but he was a trader in the first trading pit I was in as a new market-maker at the Chicago Board Options Exchange. I started in 1987...Pat had been there for a while already. He had a reputation as an unbelievable bad boy and trouble-maker. In fact, in the book he tells one of the stories he's famous for. I very much doubt that Pat will be interviewed for this book by anyone who also traded at the CBOE with him and, again, I don't think he'll remember me but it will still be a lot of fun to talk about.
And just for fun, I've posted one of Pat's music videos at the end of this blog note.
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Lori Garver is the former Deputy Administrator of NASA. In her new book, "Escaping Gravity" (link below), Lori has some thoughts about our "new space age" and Elon Musk, among other things. This is going to be quite a conversation.
‘Get your boy Elon in line’: NASA tell-all recounts turmoil over private space race - POLITICO
Other Stuff
I don't know what the chart is in the thumbnail picture with this blog. It's probably Japan's Nikkei index or a particular Japanese stock from some years ago, but the plummet it shows is very similar to what's happened to commodity prices over the past week, and especially yesterday. This is VERY welcome news on the inflation front and the sell-off extends from energy to food to metals. More info here: GSCI Commodity Index - 2022 Data - 1969-2021 Historical - 2023 Forecast - Price (tradingeconomics.com) There's also been a huge sell-off in the Baltic Dry index which measures the price of shipping bulk goods like coal and grains. Baltic Exchange Dry Index - 2022 Data - 1985-2021 Historical - 2023 Forecast - Price (tradingeconomics.com)
Great data here: Commodities - Live Quote Price Trading Data (tradingeconomics.com)
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This is a remarkable development although a lot of folks think the FDA has gone much too far in banning Juul from the US market. One wonders what the issues are here, but one thing is sure: there's VERY big money at stake: FDA temporarily suspends order banning sales of Juul | The Hill
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This is a truly special kind of stupid. I think we should just leave them there, but maybe board up the painting for a month to protect it. U.K. climate protesters glued themselves to a 500-year-old painting : NPR
Today's Video
You can definitely see how Pat Girondi had (and has) a reputation as a bad boy, class clown, and trouble-maker...but he's also not a bad singer for a trader-gangster-pharma exec!
The second video is Pat singing in Italian to an animated short
This one is kinda dumb but also kinda hilarious given the obnoxiously low "production" value and the obvious non-playing of anything but in a way it's a perfect fit for Pat's happy-go-lucky personality